Lading strap anchor with floorboard support

ABSTRACT

A combined lading strap anchor and short floorboard support device for railway flatcars comprising a plate offset transversely of its thickness intermediate its ends whereby its bottom surface at one end and its top surface at the other end are substantially coplanar, a barlike element extending transversely of said plate intermediate its ends and spaced vertically thereabove, means supporting the ends of said barlike element from said plate, said bottom surface of said plate being adapted to rest on the top surface of a railway car side sill, and said top surface being adapted to underlie the end portion of a railway car floorboard.

United States Patent Inventor Raymond B. Wall Est St. Louis, 1]].

Appl. No. 813,084

Filed Apr. 3, 1969 Patented Sept. 14, 1971 Assignee General Steel Industries, Inc.

St. Louk, Mo.

LADING STRAP ANCHOR WITH FLOORBOARD SUPPORT 2 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 105/369 A, 105/42; in. CI. new 45/00, B60p 7/08 Field 01 Search 105/369 A, 422

Primary ExaminerDrayton E Hoffman Attorney-Bede and Burgess ABSTRACT: A combined lading strap anchor and short floorboard support device for railway flatcars comprising a plate offset transversely of its thickness intermediate its ends whereby its bottom surface at one end and its top surface at the other end are substantially coplanar, a barlike element extending transversely of said plate intermediate its ends and spaced vertically thereabove, means supporting the ends of said barlike element from said plate, said bottom surface of said plate being adapted to rest on the top surface of a railway car side sill, and said top surface being adapted to underlie the end portion of a railway car floorboard.

PATENTED SEPI 419m SHEET 1 OF 2 I NVE NTOR RAYMOND; ALL

- AT TORNEY LADING STRAP ANCHOR WITH FLOORBOARD SUPPORT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to railway rolling stock and consists particularly in a combined lading strap anchor and floorboard support device for flatcars.

2. The Prior Art In railway flatcars, transversely extending floorboards are generally supported at their ends on the underframe side sills. At lading strap anchor locations, which are spaced apart longitudinally of the car, short floorboards are used to provide recesses between the end portions of adjacent full length floorboards to accommodate the lading strap anchors, and the underframe must be provided with longitudinal stringers underlying the ends of the short floorboards to support the latter.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a lading strap anchor with means for supporting the end portions of the associated short floorboards from the side sill, and thus eliminates the need for additional stringers for supporting the ends of the short floorboards.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of a portion of a flatcar showing combined lading strap and anchor and short floorboard support device embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged transverse vertical sectional view along line 2-2 ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged top view of the combined lading strap anchor and floorboard support device illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged transverse vertical sectional view of the device as illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged side elevation of the device.

FIG. 6 is an outside end elevation of the device.

FIG. 7 is an inside end elevation of the device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the drawings the numerals 1 indicate the horizontal top flanges of transversely spaced railway flatcar side sills having vertical webs 3 intermediate their widths and the numerals 5 refer to the top flanges of spaced center sills having vertical webs 7 positioned transversely intermediate side sills 1, 3.

The underframe comprising side sills 1, 3 and center sills 5, 7 supports a wooden floor consisting principally of transverse boards 9, which extend the full width of the underframe and are supported at their ends directly on side sill top flanges l and intermediate their ends on center sill top flanges 5.

At intervals throughout the length of the car, however, to provide means for securing lading tiedown straps to the underframe inboard of the inner margins of side sill top flanges l, and at a level flush with the tops of floor boards 9, short floorboards ll, terminating inboard of the inner margins of side sill top flanges l are required between adjacent pairs of full length floorboards 9.

Past practice has necessitated the provision of longitudinal stringers inboard from and parallel to the side sills for supporting the ends of the short floorboards.

By the present invention I provide in a simple inexpensive unit, a lading strap anchor and support for the short floorboard.

The unit comprises a baseplate l3 elongated transversely of the car with its outer end portion 15 offset vertically upwardly, i.e., transversely of its thickness, from its inner end portion 17 an amount equal to its thickness, such that the bottom surface 19 of the outer portion 15 and the top surface 21 of the inner end portion are substantially coplanar, the intermediate portion 23 being gradually curved downwardly from the outer end portion to the lower inner end portion. The bottom surface at the merger of the Intermediate and inner end portions 23 and 17 is extended slightly downwardly as at 25 to increase the radius at this merger and provide greater metal thickness in this region of high stress.

Along its sides, outer end portion 15 of the unit is formed with integral upright webs 27 extending from its midpoint substantially to the midpoint of the base plate intermediate section 23, so as to reinforce the base plate against vertical bending moments in this region. Webs 27 are of generally triangular shape, each having an inner vertical edge 29 curved inwardly at its lower end, as at 31, to merge tangentially with the upper surface of the baseplate. The outer edges 33 of webs 27 are inclined so as to merge arcuately at their upper ends, as at 35, with vertical edges 29 at a level flush with the upper surfaces of floorboards 9 and 11. Preferably the lower ends of inclined outer edges 33 of webs 27 are curved, as at 37, to merge tangentially with the upper surface of baseplate outer end portion 15.

The curved apices 35 of webs 27 are connected to each other by an integral cylindrical bar 39 which provides an anchorage for the looped ends of lading straps S.

The units are preferably secured to ride sill top flanges l by fillet welds 41 along lapping edges of the baseplate and the side sill flanges, and thus form inwardly extending cantilever brackets on the side sills, the inner end portions 17 underlying the ends of short floorboards 11, with the latter resting on inner end top surface 21.

For securing short floorboards 11 to baseplate inner end portion 17, the latter is formed with a central vertical hole 43, short floorboards 11 are provided with a registering vertical hole 45 and a flathead carriage bolt 47 passing through the aligned holes is held down by a cooperating nut 49 bearing against the bottom surface of baseplate inner end portion 17 through a lock washer 51.

I claim:

1. The combination with a vehicle having longitudinally extending side sills, transverse floorboards directly supported at their ends thereon, and short floorboards terminating inwardly of said side sills, a combined lading strap anchor and short floorboard support device comprising a substantially horizontal plate secured to the upper surface of said side sill at its outer end and offset downwardly intermediate its outer and inner ends to define separate outer and inner end portions, the top surface of the inner end portion being substantially coplanar with the bottom surface of the outer end portion whereby to provide an upwardly facing surface underlying the end portion of a short floorboard and supporting the same, a barlike element extending parallel to said side sill above the outer end portion of said plate, and means on said plate supporting the ends of said barlike element in vertically spaced relation above said plate.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said plate is of substantially the same width as said short planks and the top of said barlike element and the top surface of said planks are substantially at the same level. 

1. The combination with a vehicle having longitudinally extending side sills, transverse floorboards directly supported at their ends thereon, and short floorboards terminating inwardly of said side sills, a combined lading strap anchor and short floorboard support device comprising a substantially horizontal plate secured to the upper surface of said side sill at its outer end and offset downwardly intermediate its outer and inner ends to define separate outer and inner end portions, the top surface of the inner end portion being substantially coplanar with the bottom surface of the outer end portion whereby to provide an upwardly facing surface underlying the end portion of a short floorboard and supporting the same, a barlike element extending parallel to said side sill above the outer end portion of said plate, and means on said plate supporting the ends of said barlike element in vertically spaced relation above said plate.
 2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said plate is of substantially the same width as said short planks and the top of said barlike element and the top surface of said planks are substantially at the same level. 